Indicators of Participatory Evaluation in Community

Development Plans in Catalonia (Spain)

Héctor NúñezXavier ÚcarPilar Pineda

Universidad Autonoma de BarcelonaSpain

Community Development International ConferenceLisboa

July 2011

1. Community Development Plans (CDP’s) in Catalonia:

1.1. The beginnings1.2. The Goals of this approach

2. Participatory Methodology approach

2.1. Working together with practitioners of the field2.2. Indicators of Participatory Evaluation

3. Research project: “Participatory evaluation of community action as a learning methodology to individual and community empowerment”

CONTENTS

First CDP’s started up in 1996; with only two initiatives around the territory

In 1998, began to be implemented throughout the country; both urban and rural areas

Currently, there are 80 CDP’s in Catalonia

The Government of Catalonia collaborates with civic and social entities, and gives them institutional and economic support

1. Community Development Plans (CDP’s) in Catalonia (I)

The Goals of this approach:

Social and territorial strategy which aims to give answers to the needs of the community, to improve quality of life.

CDP try to enhance participatory processes, that facilitate the empowerment of the neighborhoods, organizations and citizenship.

Community Development Plans (CDP’s)in Catalonia (II)

The Citizen Action Secretary of Government of Catalonia wants to explore a new method to evaluate the CDP’s.

We propose them working together with practitioners of the field.

In 2008, we started up a project that focused in a participatory approach with community technicians of CDP.

These practitioners carry out the management; design; implementation and evaluation of CDP in each community.

2. Participatory Methodology approach

(I)

First action: A documental review to analyze semestral and annual memories evaluations of 55 CDP’s.

This work allows us to propose an initial set of indicators of evaluation with the team.

The set of indicators of evaluation was worked and reelaborated trough the experiences and opinions of community technicians.

Participatory Methodology approach (II)

We established four dimensions of analysis:

I. Context of Community Development Plan (CDP)

II. Historical development of CDP

III. Management of CDP

IV. Outputs of CDP

Indicators of evaluation(I)

These indicators:

Characteristics of the territory. Population characteristics (age; gender; nationality; social

risk population; level of education). Services in the territory (schools; health centers;

community centers; police office).

It can serve us to do a contextual / diagnostically evaluation

I. Context of Community Development Plan (CDP)

These indicators:

Information about community technicians (level and kind of universitary studies, etc.)

The origin of each CDP. Rol of Citizen Secretary of Catalonia's government in the

origin of each CDP in the last years. Coordination with others CDP for share knowledge. Number of activities and projects developed for each year

since the beginnings of the CDP.

It can serve us to know the evolution of each CDP

II. Historical development of CDP

Indicators:

Characteristics of diagnostic evaluation.

Kind of work of community technicians.

Activities and projects developed in this year.

Level of participation in the activities developed in this year. Level of autonomy in the work of community technicians.

Degree of dissemination of evaluation's processes.

It can serve us to monitor and asses the participatory evaluation approach.

III. Management of CDP(I)

Indicators:

Social capital in the communities.

New social networks in the communities.

Increase degree of trust in the institutions.

Increase degree of participation of the members of communities; and the quality of participation.

Self-organization Stakeholders' increase.

It can serve us to know the level of empowerment that it will be produce

IV. Outputs of CDP

“Participatory evaluation of community action as a learning methodology to individual and community empowerment”

Three universities are involved:

Autonoma of BarcelonaBarcelonaGirona

And a particular foundation based on Knowledge Society:

Citilab

3. The current research(I)

The goal of this project consists of applying a participatory evaluation approach in the evaluation of CDP’s in Catalonia. For this, we focus our work in three CDP and we use a methodology of case studies. We will end up our research project at December of 2013.

3. The current research(II)

Another's researchers involved in this research are:

E. Crespo; E. Gil; P. Heras; A. Llena; A. Planas; L. Sánchez; P. Soler.

HectorDavid.Nunez@uab.cat

Thanks for your attention